Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Analogy Time

a) jerry is to tomb) road runner is to coyotec) bill belichick is to peyton manningd) lou lamoriello is to bobby clarkee) all of the above

the answer, sadly and obviously is e) all of the above.

a) the devils are jerry to the flyers tom because they seem to always play a smarter game. is it because they have a better gameplan? i doubt it. they've had what, 5 coaches during this stretch of dominance over the flyers? is it because they have smarter players? maybe, though they've had a huge roster turnover during this stretch of dominance. not sure why, but whenever they meet, the devils usually make more smart decisions than the flyers do.

b) the devils are road runner to the flyers coyote because they always have a faster team than the flyers do. always. the flyers usually have one or two guys with speed on their team, but i bet if you match up the historic rosters man for man in order of speed the devils would be slightly faster up and down the lineup. they get to lose pucks, they recover when they are out of position, and they get more "odd-man" rushes than the flyers.

c) the devils are bill belichick to the flyers peyton manning because the devils are in the flyers' heads. the flyers start to sweat and panic as soon as they fall 1 goal behind the devils. just like the way belichick frustrates manning by forcing him into a slow down game, the devils are able to impose their will on the flow of the game.

d) the real reason for the devils dominance over the flyers (and the difference in their overall success over the last decade) is lou lamoriello. he just flat out knows talent better than bobby clarke and understands how to build a team better than bobby clarke. there isn't a single comparison i can think of that goes in clarkie's favor. team results favors lamoriello. head to head results favors lamoriello. olympic results favors lamoriello -- clarke put rob zamuner on his olympic team for cripes sake. team payroll goes in lamoriello's favor. drafting goes in lamoriello's favor. coach selection goes in lamoriello's favor -- think lou would have hired winners like bill dineen, terry simpson, wayne cashman, and craig ramsay? clarke has too many personal biases -- hates russians, hates small players (which is funny because he was a small player!) -- and is too insecure (as evidenced by his history of hiring weak and inexperienced coaches) to be a winning GM. no matter what happens this season, i still feel comfortable saying CLARKE MUST GO!